Run
by Cammonrly
Summary: You can't run from your problems, right? I suppose that makes it a bad idea but that didn't stop me. It was just supposed to be a battle, not a fight. It seems like things never turn out the way I plan them though so I guess I shouldn't be surprised. I had only meant to give him a shove but then he was on the ground and me and Seth were running.
1. Chapter 1

[Hey this is the first thing I'm posting on this site so it would be great if you (whoever you are) left a review, just so I know someone cares (or a least read these two lines and took pity).]

Things always seem to go wrong for me. You name it, I've screwed it up. School, relationships and cooking all make the short list although I suppose it's about time for a new entry. Battling has been my latest failure and boy did I go way wrong on my first attempt.

People (you know people right?) frequently asked me why I didn't battle. Frankly I had no interest, neither did Seth as far as he told me but I'd known him for 16 years so I figured he would have brought it up if there was some draw. We did spar with each other from time to time, I would inevitably lose (although I did pretty well for myself all considered), and he went training by himself pretty often while I did other things. It seemed however that our relative pacifism was overlooked by people (the jerks) in favour of a vision of pent up rage waiting to be unleashed. Something I'd regret, were it not for the bigger problems at hand, is that I'd now inadvertently validated that vision.

I suppose I can't blame people completely, there is something kind of intimidating (I guess) about a misanthropic 18 year old and a Lucario with a matching attitude, and I hate giving people credit but Seth was a bit taller than usual for a Lucario. Ok, really tall for a Lucario. Six foot two. My relatives joked that he'd been trying to keep up with me (my relatives weren't very funny).

Anyway, someone had gotten impatient; or curious; or stuck up his own… well not to beat around the bush, he had wanted to battle me. I had said no, he had said something, Seth had said to walk away but I didn't. We battled, I won, he shoved me, and I shoved back. At least I thought was going to. My elbows snapped straight and there was a flash and I was on the ground and Seth had been tugging my arm telling me, "_We have to run_."

Sure I had been sparring with a pokemon for years now so I could probably hit harder and faster than most humans but that was just the thing, I was human, wasn't I? No one could hit as hard as I thought I had, could they? I had fallen on my ass and he had gone ten feet, he wasn't moving, his rib cage didn't look right.

I shouldn't have run, I could have helped. Everything might have been alright. Now he's probably dead and I'm probably a criminal.


	2. Chapter 2

My eyes were open a second before the alarm went off and by the time it did I was already leaping out of bed. My arm was raised ready to smash my cell phone through the top of my desk before it woke anyone else in the house; but it had already stopped. I blinked and found myself staring at an empty patch of desk which previously contained my phone. I blinked again, confused, then slowly looked up, arm still raised. Seth was leaning back against the wall beside my desk smiling and spinning my phone deftly between his fingers.

It had become a hobby of his to see what he could do without the benefit opposable thumbs. More aptly it had become a hobby of his to do everything I could without the benefit opposable thumbs. I maintain a slim lead.

"Morning." I said, tactfully turning my windup into a stretch.

"_Morning._"

I grabbed a towel and some clothes and generally started to pull things together for the day before I went to shower. It was no use, my room was mess.

"_What are we going to do today Brain?_"

I shook my head slightly and smiled, "The same thing we do every day Seth… other than quote old cartoons"

"_Still not beat up enough then?_"

"Beat up? How mediocre a skier do you think I am?"

He chuckled and shrugged, "_I dunno, I only ever hear stories of your crashes. Besides isn't this habit getting a bit old?_"

"Crashes make the best stories and this habit is only six, hardly old at all."

"_Habits age faster than people…_"

I tip toed my way up the stairs to the bathroom, my clothes for the day over my shoulder, leaving Seth alone in my room. He was only joking about skiing getting old. He skied too and enjoyed it, though not as much as me. About a year after I had started skiing I found a company that made special boots and other ski equipment for pokemon; six weeks later Seth's kit had arrived in the bill of a pelipper. His half-hearted objection was based on the fact that in the past two years I had begun, unbeknownst to my parents, skipping school to go skiing during the week, I had consciously avoided this little tid-bit when I had said that the habit was only six, choosing to refer instead to how long I had been skiing.

I didn't feel bad about skipping school though, since it seemed like no one needed it nowadays. From what I've heard, of all the regional champions, only Steven and Cynthia finished high school and only Steven went to university. Nearly everybody dropped out the second they were old enough to get a trainer's card but both my parents had gone to university so I was on "The Path".

I stepped into the bathroom and locked the door behind me. I turned the shower to full blast and the water temperature to the opposite since the hot water tank made too much noise for my liking. I washed quickly and was stepping out of the shower not five minutes later when I heard a door open in the hall. Then close. There were footsteps which stopped, right outside the bathroom. I could virtually see his smirk through the door.

I put on my clothes and threw the towel over the curtain rail. I opened the door, stretching and faking a yawn. "Oh, hey Will," I said through my yawn, trying to sound surprised, "up early, eh?"

"Hey, Seb, the same could be said for you."

He was leaning against the railing still in his pajamas with his arms crossed. He looked smug as a snivy and it made me want to punch him in the face.

"_Don't_," came Seth's voice in my head; telepathy was a little trick of his.

"_I wouldn't_," I thought back, "_it would wake my parents_."

"Yyyyaa… I'm going to school early today. Me and some friends are doing a study session," I said to Will.

He snorted, "You don't have any friends who still go to school." It was true, Eris had been the last one and she had left three years ago; but not to become some famous trainer. "Besides," he continued, "you're wearing skiing base layers." Man I hate siblings.

"Well it's cold outside."

"Normal people would wear a sweater."

"I'm touched, you called me normal."

"I called you no such thing."

"Then be quite and get out my face."

"Promise you'll battle me or I'll wake Mom and Dad," his grin was stretched to his ears in my mind, he knew that deal wasn't happening.

"No."

"Then get me a new pokemon," the brat already had more than six and he was only twelve.

"How would I do that without battling?"

"Get one from Eris"

"_Out of the question._"

"No."

"Why?"

"You know why."

"Fine. Lucky for you, it just so happens that I want a new bike before summer comes around so I'll cut you a deal: whatever money I can come up with in the next week, you double it," the dink had adopted all my old mannerisms as well as made an attempt at my business sense.

"I'll boost it by ten percent."

"Fifty."

"Ten."

"Thirty."

"Ten."

"Twenty five."

"Deal."

He was probably just going to borrow cash from his friends to get the most out of me but I didn't care. I had more money than I knew what to do with since I never spent it on anything and I hadn't gotten him a birthday present so this would kind of make up for that (at least in my books).

"_Your brother sucks at negotiating._"

"_Only the younger one but thank Arceus for that much._"

I ran downstairs quietly, grabbed my equipment and some food and booked it out the door with Seth in tow.


End file.
